Piano Etudes: Piano Train Trips

Today’s post is devoted to the launch of my first book!!. In early July, I published in my blog the Piano Train Trips book in downloadable PDF version. Due to the good reception that the book is having, I have decided to release Piano Train Trips in print version and it will be available from September 1 in amazon.es. In addition to this good news, two publishing houses have contacted me for distribution in Germany on the one hand and the US and Canada on the other. The book will be published soon translated into German and with a pedagogical guide included through Zauberklavier publishing and by the end of September, in English on Pianosafari which will distribute in North America . I hope you like it and find it useful!

About Piano Train Trips

Piano Train Tripsis a collection of 18 piano etudes plus a series of supplementary exercises. The etudes are designed to practise just one specific musical aspect in each piece with a style appealing to students. Being focused on a determined feature will enable students to assimilate easily the proposed aspect by means of listening, memory, reading and practice. For instance, in the etudes based on intervals they will learn to identify them clearly in the score, to perceive them aurally and they will relate them with one position of the hand to play them. There are etudes focused on scales, intervals, positions of five fingers, chords in different positions, etc.

Here I include some videos so you can have an idea about the pieces:

In the exercises, the students will work the different technical aspects practised in the etudes with the teacher’s accompaniment, so that their assimilation will be reinforced.

May of the pieces and exercises have been conceived to be able to be played in different keys; if the student has grasped the idea properly transporting it to another tonality should not be difficult at all. But the strongest point about this book is that students do really like the pieces and they practise them eagerly.

This book is perfect complement to any other method or repertory. As I have already mentioned in different occasions i am in favour of practising many different pieces along the school year. The students should study a new piece every week. Using this book alternatively with another method or different repertory pieces will enable the students to include a great variety of pieces of different styles and piano scores in their practice, thus improving their reading and technical skills, as well as their memory and ability of analysis.

How did the idea of Piano Train Trips come up?

I had never thought about writing a book of piano pieces, I’ve never composed anything before, I am just a teacher of piano who loves his profession. There are plenty of good books of piano etudes and exercises, as I have remarked in former posts, but many students do not find them appealing enough and ,in consequence, they do not practice them. So, along the year, I started writing small compositions based on the concepts that I was trying to teach my students to practise them in a more enjoyable way. Along the year I noticed these compositions were working really well and the students were practising with increased motivation. Encouraged both by students and parents I decided to gather together some of the etudes and exercises that I had composed and that had been especially successful and publish them in Internet.

Who is Piano Train Trips targeted to?

These pieces have been used both in individual as in group lessons (they work really well in groups) .The etudes in this book are enjoyed both by children and by adults that begin their piano lessons, so there is not a specific range of age to use Piano Train Trips. They are more or less devised for students of second or third level, for an elementary advanced level, and they are a perfect complement to any other method or repertory used by students and teachers.